Unintended Consequences
by John Ross

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Book Reviews of Unintended Consequences

Book Review: A Freedom Manifesto - bang, bang, you're free
Summary: 5 Stars

Book Review: FOR ALL LOVERS OF FREEDOM
Summary: 5 Stars

UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES is a novel of epic proportions concerning what the author dubs the "gun culture." The gun culture consists of all those freedom-loving individuals who shoot, own and/or deal in firearms. The cornerstone of any citizen's right to freedom, the Second Amendment as defined by the U.S. Constitution has been under attack since the early part of the twentieth century. Weaving a series of historical incidents with technical details concerning firearms, Ross successfully makes the case that for freedom to flourish, gun control laws must be dismantled, and the power of a U.S. government out of control must be reigned in and brought back into the hands of its people.

To not give too much away from the plot, here is simply a rough sketch. Our protagonist is Henry Bowman, though his appearance comes later in the novel than expected. Ross starts his novel off with a series of historical events that show how the beginnings of government abuses against its citizens began, from the American Bonus Army from World War I to the National Firearms Act of 1934. By the time Ross gets to the birth of Bowman, any reader friendly to the gun culture will be squirming in disgust.

Bowman from childhood on is thoroughly immersed with firearms. He becomes an ace shot and shoots any gun he happens upon. His life revolves around his passion for shooting. When he and two other friends discover that they are about to be set up by ATF agents through illegal raids on their property, Bowman decides that enough is enough. He begins to wage a war against those in authority who wish for him and those like him to simply submit and give up their guns.

That's the basic plot line Ross gives us to follow. Meanwhile, subplots mount up and various characters emerge to give backing to Ross's ultimate argument that if a government can use force against its own people, no matter how innocent, then gun controls and, ultimately, disarmament is the greatest use of force the government has in its possession. To be able to deter such use of force is up to the individual. But only through direct action will the assault on the rights of U.S. citizens' cease.

John Ross as novelist is something of a basket maker, carefully weaving threads of seemingly unconnected strands of events to each other. With a careful and knowing eye of all current gun laws, he has crafted a story that will hold the reader's interest and keep boredom at bay. While many reviewers may wish to criticize this book on technical grounds, i.e. that sometimes the sex or violence is gratuitous, I suspect that most will want to find fault with the subject matter itself.

The gun debate is an area in which consensus can rarely be reached. There are those who see government as a friendly benefactor and others as a necessary evil. Some folks may wish that all guns were in the hands of government officials and are not able to comprehend that our government could perform any atrocities against its own people. But Ross clearly makes the case that this does indeed happen. It goes back to the old adage that guns do not kill people, but people who use the guns as a tool. Whether it be a knife, ice pick or firearm, the responsibility of murder always lies with the user of the implement, not the implement itself.

Negative attacks on those grounds will certainly not diminish this book's value to the freedom canon. Again, certain legitimate critiques can be made at the author's style and technique. But those are indeed overshadowed by the magnitude of what Ross has to say and how he says it. UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES will beat out any Tom Clancy thriller any day and, if the reader is sympathetic to Ross's viewpoints, he will find himself a treasure trove of historical facts, an exciting story and a darn good reading experience.

Not surprisingly, major book reviewers would not touch this book when it first appeared, even though it sold out its initial print run within four months. From what I have gathered, it is also on the FBI and ATF list of subversive reading materials. That fact alone is enough for any reader to go out and read this novel. As a member of the gun culture, Ross and his ilk deserve credit for allowing all citizens of this country to continue to enjoy a certain level of freedom, for it is the right to bear arms that underlies all the other rights that we do enjoy.

Overall, Ross's book will certainly rank right up there with Rand's ATLAS SHRUGGED in the future as one of the few books that offered up a statement about the decline of our freedom, and the vision to secure it once again.

Book Review: Ideology Not Enough, But Worthwhile Effort
Summary: 4 Stars

The work's moral political ideology of individual liberty concurrent with individual responsibility embodied by the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights is so fundamental as to be unarguable, but it will nonetheless probably eclipse every other consideration by most reviewers.

Published as a novel and nearly as broad in scope as Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged," the work is unfortunately paralyzed by identity crisis, not uncommon for initial works whose authors set themselves the task of a book that is to be all things to all people. This work is at odds with itself whether to be a novel, a textbook on firearms, a monograph on the gun culture, a tome of history, or a treatise on political philosophy.

There is no lack of erudition. The book presents an authoritative treatment of firearms that is impressive. Likewise, there is an excellent, if selective, chronicle of contemporary history included as the fomenting events leading to the actual 250-page plot in the last quarter of the 800-plus-page book. However, there is a lack of synthesis among the work's separate elements into a unified story, as well as a lack of individual characterization, which could have been solved with more thorough and more thoughtful editing.

History undoubtedly makes the most fascinating stories, but there is a critical difference between history, even written as narrative, and historical fiction, and it is vital that authors of each keep their purpose clearly delineated to succeed in their respective field.

Successful narrative history, such as William Manchester's "The Glory and the Dream," weave together documented events and dialogue into compelling drama. Their limitation to historical record becomes their greatest strength in story-telling. Authors of historical fiction consciously choose to depart from the record and infuse their work with fictional dialogue, motivational supposition, and other imagined details of events or characters for the sake of telling a more compelling story. Therefore, any "filling in of blanks" can only be justified for the sake of story, which clearly takes the back seat in this work. Also, the more detailed the incidents or historical figures included in such genre works, the more difficult it is to ascribe believable fictional aspects to the characters and circumstances.

Successful historical fiction uses major events accepted as historical facts to weave a believable tapestry of characters and events into a true-to-life story. The secret to successful historical fiction, then, is knowing what level of focal resolution to apply to the historical record in crafting the story.

It is in this respect that "Unintended Consequences" fails. The work attempts to keep all levels of the historical record in the same focal resolution, while filling in the blanks at all of the same levels with arbitrary supposition.

In simpler terms, it is impossible to focus simultaneously at arm's length and at the horizon, a lesson the author himself imparts in one passage describing the proper technique for aiming, but which is precisely what "Unintended Consequences" attempts.

On a more superficial level, and while for many readers unimportant but which is nonetheless not without impact, the errors in copy editing, such as incorrect pronouns and verb tenses, contribute to a lack of professionalism that impedes not only the literary artistry but the work's ideological impact. Were such flaws isolated, they would be easier to overlook, however, the sheer number bespeak carelessness on the part of the publisher, Accurate Press.

Readers themselves, consciously or unconsciously, must doubt the credibility of the work, for if the publisher didn't take the work seriously enough to grammatically "bullet proof" the manuscript, how can readers be expected to give it appropriate consideration? Again, this is the fault of editors.

Ross' discipline for research and detail, so vital to realism and such a boost to telling compelling stories, is to be commended, and if he had only paid as much attention in his selection of editors and publishers, "Unintended Consequences" may have taken its proper place among its genre.

Book Review: Intended Consequence: Preservation of Liberty
Summary: 5 Stars

Both novels deal with the attempt of government to dominate and with a generally apathetic and, by default, willing public that allows its freedoms and creative enthusiasm to be drained slowly away. Both postulate ways in which a defiant, passionate minority might respond.

There are also differences, of course. Rand's novel dealt with the erosion of freedom that comes from confiscatory taxation and government sanctioned socialism. Rand was an immigrant from Russia, and she despised socialism. UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES deals primarily with incremental infringements on the second amendment and the threats this poses on all other basic freedoms that Americans presumably enjoy, so far, because of the force conveyed to the citizenry inherent in that segment of our constitution.

Though neither novel has an actual narrator, ATLAS SHRUGGED was written from the vantagepoint of a sophisticated, somewhat aloof (and even workaholic) New York woman. UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES is from the perspective of a man from the Midwest, with a narration style that is more informally conversational or "down home."

Some reviewers have challenged the literary value of this story, whatever that means. A novel is important to an individual reader for a variety of possible reasons. Some people have cherished the stories of Hemingway (as I do), but for those who demand a vibrant plot, his stories would have little worth as they are predominately about mood. (I am sure there are those who would challenge this assertion.) Though many rave about what a great novel is ATLAS SHRUGGED (as I do), it is endlessly redundant and at times maddening to wade through to finally get to the point. Yet that was Rand's style; we have to put up with it (if that is how one might put it) to mine the gems. UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES is much more important for its subject matter than its mood. Though its story is still an engrossing one for those who care about the concepts of that subject matter.

Another criticism of this novel has been that it at times resorts to gratuitous descriptions of sexual events that do not contribute to the story. I disagree. This is a novel for adults who understand, among other things, that there is violence in society, and sometimes it is random and senseless. The assaults depicted against a couple of the main characters, and their responses to them, are consistent with feasible, even probable, psychological adaptations that people might assume from such experiences. My work two decades ago in an inner-city Chicago hospital where I had significant exposure to the emergency room and some overlap with people from the social services department leads me to find these segments quite believable, and one more example of an "unintended consequence" of events that take place in the story.

Though UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES is deliberately written to be easy to read it is brilliant in its historical scholarship and in its analysis of the precariousness of our present condition of personal freedom. It offers a stark example of where we may be headed as far as our liberty is concerned. It is a worthy antidote to the leftist political slant predominantly presented in "mainstream" newspapers and television news, where the philosophical outlook seems to be that big government knows what is best for all of us.

Time alone will tell if UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES really becomes a classic in the manner of ATLAS SHRUGGED. But given that when Ayn Rand's novel appeared in 1958 it was with all the fanfare that publishing giant Random House could muster, and that John Ross' book is spreading solely through the grapevine (read the publisher's note above), and still is gaining momentum, it appears to be well on its way. It is an important book, and thoughts therein deserve serious consideration by those who seriously value liberty.

Book Review: A Morality Play on These United States
Summary: 5 Stars

UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES, a novel by John Ross -- Accurate Press, St. Louis, MO 863 pages, $28.95 (cloth)

The jacket design (by the author) vividly portrays the motif of this thick volume: A federal SWAT-team person --- helmeted, booted, masked, clad in the now universally recognizable black outfit and brandishing an assault rifle --- has Justice by the throat. She lies half naked, grimacing in pain, while her assailant presses her to the ground with the barrel of his gun held against her naked breast. The scales she formerly held aloft with dignity and pride are cast roughly aside, flotsam of official violence while the Constitution burns in the background.

Reading this book, powerful and lengthy as it is, I am taken back across many years to my first reading of Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand's ponderous classic which imaginatively looked forward to the crumbling milieu of America that now, half a century later, is vividly described by John Ross and our daily newspaper. In both books the fundamental issue is Freedom and human dignity, and the loss of both for ordinary people at the hands of corrupt and licentious bureaucrats and politicians wielding the tools and tactics of a police state. In both books the narrative is often suspended while the leading characters speak long soliloquies embodying the philosophies and cultural experiences of the authors.

"Who is John Galt?" became a sardonic or perhaps wistful greeting among the bookish set a couple of generations ago. (My God! Has it been so long?) Now John Ross introduces us to Henry Bowman, a man no less charismatic as a fictional character, but certainly no John Galt. By the same token, John Galt was no Henry Bowman. To describe their differences, however, would be to betray the denouement of both books, which I will leave for you to discover on your own.

UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES, not incidentally, is as much the narrative history of the so-called "gun culture" as it is the story of Henry Bowman and his friends and acquaintances. It has to be that because it is impossible to fully grasp the character and motives of these people without understanding that sub-culture of Americana and the peculiarly inappropriate responses that they evoked from the entities government. One result for the reader is that, from the pages of this book, you will discover a measure of the truth of law and the "regulation culture" that (since even before the days of Ayn Rand) conspired to place us on the threshold of virtually the exact situation prophesied in Atlas Shrugged. You will also learn of significant events never reported by the mainstream media, as well as generally unknown details about such confrontations as those at the Warsaw Ghetto, Ruby Ridge and Waco. For these, too, are part of the history woven into this remarkable novel.

This book is a recommended read for enjoyment as well as a source of enlightenment about self and world. It is a first novel by John Ross, an investment advisor, scholar, and unapologetic member of the "gun culture" whose articles on self defense, guns, firearms laws and regulations have appeared in several well-known publications. He knows whereof he writes.

William J. Bonville - bonville@cdsnet.net